Call Waiting
by txskye
Summary: A&S fanfic. Allison wakes from a violent dream and is left speechless ...
1. Chapter 1

_The man wore a dark green ski mask. He pointed a gun at the convenience-store clerk and fired once, knocking off most of his nose and the rest of his face with it. Two men, one wearing a police uniform and one a dark suit, charged into the store soon after the gunshot. They were followed closely by a blonde woman. All three were faceless. The man in the ski mask spun around and fired at them. _

There was light on the bed when she opened her eyes and left the dream. It was the kind of bright, slanted light that comes through blinds and wakes you up all of a sudden, pestering you to come out and play. You put your hand over your eyes to protect yourself from its exuberance. Then you feel its warmth, realize what it is, and roll over on your stomach, irritated but certain you know what it is. Certainty is a good thing.

The man in bed next to her wasn't Joe. In retrospect she was surprised at how little time it took her to realize it wasn't her husband in bed next to her.

Allison knew she'd gone to bed with him the night before; she was quite certain of this. A certainty. He'd given her a kiss on the forehead and, tired, she'd fallen asleep almost immediately.

The phone rang. It was that tinny little whine of a ring that sounds worse in the morning because all anyone wants is just fifteen more minutes of sleep.

Lee stretched. "Alison, get it already!" He slowly pulled himself up out of the bed. "You do realize it's on your side, right?"

Allison tried to move. She'd had many visions, many dreams, many visits from the quote-unquote other side, but this was different. The phone finally stopped ringing because she just lay there, staring at the ceiling. Confused.

Lee sighed. "I guess if it's important they'll call back."

Then the alarm clock went off. She jerked her head toward the clock; the time was currently posting at 6:30. Not knowing what else to do, she finally leaned over and turned it off. It seemed like a normal thing to do. It was loud as hell.

"God, thank you," Lee said. She watched him rub the back of his head in the way men did when they'd cut their hair too short and didn't know what to do with it. It made her smile momentarily before she realized that she was still in the middle of some sort of insanity.

He sat up, shirtless, and stretched again. Then he leaned over her and kissed her cheek. "We still meeting for lunch?"

She couldn't speak, something that usually wasn't a problem. If this was a dream, which she decided it had to be, she figured she'd just wait it out silently. Her dreams weren't usually lucid like this, though. She wasn't often aware of the fact that she was in a dream.

Lee apparently didn't notice that she was speechless. Allison watched as he walked toward a room at the corner of the bedroom, she assumed the bathroom.

He turned as he reached the door frame, leaned against it, and looked at her. "What time is that meeting with Judge Cayce? Ten? Do you have time for lunch after?" He rubbed the back of his head again. Cute he was.

Lying on her side, Allison nodded. Speechless was still a good word for her current mental state. Sure there was time for lunch after. Everything before was the concern.

"Good deal," he said, smiling a bit, and turned into the bathroom. She heard the shower turn on at about the same time the phone rang again.

Allison grabbed the phone this time. She moved to push her bangs out of her eyes, but they weren't there. Those damn bangs weren't there. "Hello?" she asked in her soft, hazy accent.

"Mrs. Scanlon?" a woman asked.

Allison didn't know how to answer that one. She wasn't Mrs. Scanlon.

Fortunately the woman continued without her, as most busy people tend to do. "Judge Cayce is going to have to postpone the meeting. He sincerely apologizes. We're trying to reschedule everyone for two. A difficult task considering how busy all you lawyers are. Can you make it?"

"Sure," Allison replied faintly. "No problem." She had no idea what madness this was, but she had decided as a young girl that when this kind of inexplicable thing happened it was best to be genial. It usually worked itself out.

Dead people, visions of the future and of the past and of the present … but married to another man? This was a new one. She would have to wake up soon before she really started to worry.

She laid on her back and listened to the shower. The sound of the water didn't calm her, though, and her heart pounded. After a few minutes Lee appeared again in the door frame.

He had a way of filling up a door frame. He walked to a dresser and pulled out a pair of black pants. She lay on her side, watching him dress. She felt like a voyeur who was peeking in a window, not able to help herself, knowing it wasn't her place to watch.

He winked at her as he pulled on and buttoned a light blue shirt. "Who was on the phone?"

Allison was surprised that she was able to respond in a moderately coherent manner: "Someone calling for the judge? The meeting is postponed till, ah, two? I think?"

"Ya think?" he asked, laughing with his eyes. He walked over to the bed and leaned in to kiss her. Allison pulled back quickly, then stopped. It was dream, right? What else could it be?

She felt his lips on her cheek, a long, soft, kiss that made her cheek burn. He grinned as he pulled away and winked again. "So we'll meet for lunch before the meeting? Noon somewhere downtown?" He laughed. "I've got a hell of a lot of paperwork, so I'll probably be stuck there all day."

His laugh made her smile. "Sounds good," she said softly.

Then he was gone, telling her he'd see her later, telling her he loved her, telling her to make sure to remember to get gas in the truck because they were going to some sort of a birthday party that evening.

Allison listened to all of it, laying on her side, intently watching him behave with an ease that she had never seen in their work together for the D.A's office. It was a different man. Open and happy. Awake. Less contentious, for sure.

Then he was gone and it was so silent. Allison slowly got out of bed and surveyed her surroundings. Walking around the apartment, looking at all of the curios and books, she couldn't understand why she wasn't waking up. She should have awakened when she sat up from the bed after he left.

But she was still awake. Still Mrs. Scanlon. What kind of a name was Scanlon, anyway? It sounded Irish.

The silence started to get to her and she turned on the TV. The tail end of a local news report about several unusually violent convenience-store robberies. Then a weather segment about the lack of rain in Phoenix. Nothing new. It was always dry, leisurely this time of year.

She paused to look at a set of framed photographs on a cluttered bookcase. Her and Lee; she was wearing a wedding dress and had daisies in her hair. Another one, he was alone and leaning on a door frame, smiling just a little. She had to smile at that one. It looked like him from real life.


	2. Chapter 2

Allison walked back into the bedroom and opened the closet. If the dream was going to continue, she might as well get dressed.

Suits. Nice ones, the kind successful lawyers wore. She tilted her head and ran her fingers across the sleeve of a beautiful, expensive jacket. What the hell, she figured. She put it on.

The car she found in the apartment's corresponding parking spot was a rusty, dented beige Ford pick-up truck. She thought it was hilarious.

By the time she reached the courthouse she had begun to worry, though. It seemed too real. It wasn't like her usual dreams. She had never dreamed a different life.

She didn't know where to go when she arrived at the courthouse, so she went to Devalos' assistant. Sondra smiled broadly. "Hi, Mrs. Scanlon! How's the case going?"

Allison smiled back weakly. "Great, great," she said. Here she was an attorney in an expensive suit. Whatever the case was, might as well have it going well.

This made her wonder: Was this the life she wanted deep down? Was that what this was about?

She frowned at that thought, though. No Joe, no girls. She loved all of them and suddenly felt incredibly selfish. How could she even dream something like this? She always told Joe about her dreams, but this would be one that she didn't think she could ever confide in him.

So she was supposed to meet Lee at noon. Until then, Allison wandered. She ended up in what was supposed to be her office. It was beautiful, lots of mahogany furniture. Made her feel very adult.

Impulsively, she pulled out a phonebook and looked up Dubois in the residence white pages. She found Joseph, and, heart pounding, dialed the number.

"You've reached 602-555-1342," the monotone computerized answering machine voice said. "Press 'one' to leave a text message, press 'two' to--" Allison hung up quickly.

She was about to put the phonebook back in the desk drawer when it flipped, unaided as if an invisible hand were turning it, to the yellow pages. In the middle of the page was an ad for an architecture firm called Dubois and Miller. There was a photo of Joe, smiling. He was a partner.

Disturbed, Allison threw the book in the drawer and slammed it shut. Her head was starting to hurt. She didn't understand this. It was going on too long and it felt too real.

She stared at the desk clock and watched time pass slowly, like it was toying with her. Confused, on the verge of tears, at a quarter to noon she headed for the D.A.'s office.

Allison entered the conference room and waited silently at the long conference table. She gazed at the sunlight streaming in from the window at the opposite end of the room.

Lee finally arrived, startling her. He came up from behind and put his hands on her shoulders. She jumped. He kissed her neck softly. "Something wrong?" he asked, furrowing his brow.

Allison stood. She needed to break out of this, and Lee was apparently the focal point of the illusion. She needed to explain it to him to understand it.

"This isn't my life," she said softly, leaning against the conference table, staring up at him. She hated saying it to him because she knew it would hurt him. But she also knew she had to be truthful with him. "I don't know what this is, but this isn't my life."

"Allison, what are you talking about?" He moved to put his arms on her shoulders, but she pulled away.

"I'm not married to you. I'm married to a man named Joe Dubois. I have three daughters. This is some sort of dream, I think. Vision. Maybe." Her eyes filled with tears. "I don't know!"

"You're having a vision?" Lee asked, moving again to put his arms on her shoulders. Allison pulled away again and turned from him. He grabbed her shoulder this time and pulled her around to face him. "What the hell's going on, Allison?"

"This isn't my life!" she said, blinking rapidly to avoid crying. "I don't what this is! I don't know why I can't wake up!"

Lee stepped a short step away from her and crossed his arms tightly. "You're telling me you don't remember being married to me?" he asked incredulously.

"No."

There was a long silence. Finally, he said, " But I love you." Allison watched as he rubbed his hand on the back of his short hair and that did the trick: she began to cry.

He pulled her to him and held her tightly. She couldn't believe how warm he felt. And he smelled like cologne, comforting, masculine cologne. She'd never hugged him in real life, but had always thought he'd smell just like this.

It made her cry harder. She was five-two and he was so much taller. He leaned down and put his head in the crook of her neck and they stayed that way for several minutes. Allison felt as if her heart were pounding out of her chest, and she was barely able to breathe.

He finally pulled away a bit; she was unable to move from him at all. His hands were still on her waist. "Is this a psychic thing? Some kind of amnesia? Do we need to go to a doctor?"

He paused, looking at her somberly with his hazel eyes. "Allison, tell me what I need to do."

"I don't know," Allison responded softly, shaking her head. "I don't know."

"So, if I'm not your husband, who am I?" He tried to smile, but couldn't pull it off, the worry on his face apparent.

"We … work together," Allison said. "That's all."

"That's all?" he asked, raising his eyebrows, now able to smile a little. "There's no way I'd be able to just _work _with you. No way in hell." He leaned in and kissed the top of her head.

Allison's eyes filled up with tears. "I don't remember."

He pulled away completely then and stared at her. "We'll get you to the doctor tomorrow, OK? Get this straightened out. Fix it."

Allison couldn't say anything. It was too much now. The dream or whatever it was had gone on too long and it hurt. When she woke up she was going to remember having been so close to him and it wasn't fair. Why the hell was this happening?


	3. Chapter 3

There was a knock at the door and Sondra poked her head in and smiled. "Sorry, Detective Scanlon, there's a call for you. Convenience-store robbery in progress, I think."

Lee nodded and turned back to Allison after Sondra left. "Looks like I'm going to miss lunch. I'll be home in time to go to Jacob's birthday party, OK? And then tomorrow we'll get to the doctor."

"Lee, I don't even know who Jacob is," Allison said.

"Lorraine's son?" he said. "His third birthday?"

She shook her head. "My sister?" Allison put her hand to her mouth. Wherever she was, Lee's sister was alive and there was a birthday party for her son. She started to shake.

Lee grabbed her and hugged her tightly. "OK, I'm staying right here. You're scaring me."

Allison hugged him back as tightly. It was insane; it was too real now to be a dream. His arms, his cologne, his kiss. His mouth was on hers, pulling her into him. One of his hands was on the back of her head and the other was on her waist, now moving slowly up and down her back. She clutched his suit jacket and pulled him as close to her as she could because she feared it would be over soon.

There was another knock at the door and Sondra poked her head in again. 'I'm so sorry," she said, embarrassed, "but they say the call can't wait, Detective."

She left and Lee turned back to Allison. "I have to go, but we will fix this, OK?" He stared at her intently. "I hate to leave you like this."

Allison nodded, not knowing what else to do. She felt shell-shocked. His mouth on hers left it burning. Her heart felt sore in her chest. This--whatever _this _was--was the worst thing that had ever happened to her because she knew now that when this dream or vision or whatever it was ended she was not going to be able to ever forget it. And it was happening too fast.

He kissed her again before he left, pushing her up against the conference-room table. Allison was overwhelmed. She touched his face as he slowly pulled away. "Tell me you love me," he said, eyes on hers.

"Of course I love you," she said. Then he was gone.

Devalos walked into the conference room to chat with Allison about a case she was apparently both representing and helping to solve with her medium abilities. A ray of sunshine coming through the conference-room blinds caught Allison's attention as they were talking. She stared at the window.

A shape appeared. It was herself.

She had transformed from a sunbeam to a fully formed figure and was sitting in a chair at the end of the conference table. She stared at her.

Devalos didn't appear to see the other her. Allison wasn't too surprised; no one usually saw what she saw. "Could I have a few moments to make a call?" she asked him.

"Sure, of course," he said, patting her on the arm absently on his way out of the room.

Allison stared at the other her sitting at the end of the table. "What is this?" she asked her, trying not to betray any emotion but hearing her voice crack as she spoke.

The Allison at the end of the table began to cry. Then she was gone.


	4. Chapter 4

"Mrs. Scanlon?" Sondra flung the door open and rushed into the conference room, Devalos directly behind her.

"What is it?" she asked.

"A call just came in, Allison," Devalos said. "Two officers down."

Devalos drove her to the hospital. Everything was in slow motion: trees passing, cars passing, buildings passing, life passing, as they drove. Allison felt he was driving very quickly, even erratically, but to her it was still slow, slurred. It was like it happened a long time ago and was being replayed leisurely, even backward.

The hospital was worse. Devalos touched her shoulder and she thought he said that he would find out what was going on and be right back. For her to stay where she was and not to move. That was fine with her. She didn't move because she couldn't.

All activity in the hospital stopped for Allison. The only thing that remained was a murmur of voices, none distinct.

She saw herself at the end of the hospital corridor walking toward her.

She walked up to her and faced her. "He's dead," she told her.

Allison shook her head. "No."

Her double shook her head violently, her face wet with tears. "Yes. And they wouldn't even let me see him!" She grabbed Allison's arm tightly. "They wouldn't even let us see him!"

Allison pushed her away and looked wildly down the hospital corridor. "No, I don't understand. I don't understand this! What is happening?"

"I brought you here," her other said. "To show you."

"To show me what?" Allison shouted. "What? What is this? What in the hell is this?"

"This is what happened," she responded.

Allison stared at herself, angry at herself for not being clearer. "So, what, this is some kind of an alternate reality?"

"No, this did happen. It happened to me. To us. He died, and he was my whole life for more than fifteen years and when he was gone, I had nothing!"

She paused, taking several deep breaths. "Nothing!" she shouted, now hysterical. "We waited to have children, and so I didn't even a part of him to hold onto. I couldn't live any more."

"I don't understand!" Allison cried. "What happened?"

"He was everything," she said. Tears rolled down her face. "Now I'm nowhere. Trapped nowhere."

"But you see, we've found him again!" she continued, grabbing Allison's sleeve. "It was impossible, but it happened anyway! Don't you see? We can be with him again!"

Allison pulled away from herself. "I'm married and I have children." She said it as calmly as she could, but she was not at all calm.

"You will remember me and you will remember him." She paused, Allison's blue eyes staring into Allison's blue eyes. "But I think you've always remembered."

Allison was then in her bed, the bed in the house that until recently was the one she always slept in. She looked to her left and saw Joe sleeping peacefully next to her.

The bedroom was dark. No sunlight came through the blinds. The soft rush of rain came from behind the window. Uncertainly, Allison looked at the alarm clock: 6:28.

The phone rang.


End file.
